16 Biggest Hits
lives up to its billing, more or less, rounding up a wide-ranging selection of
Ronnie Milsap
's most memorable songs. All but one of these 16 songs was a chart-topper, and the only one that wasn't, the Top Five-charting
"Stranger in My House,"
is a darn good song nonetheless, certainly one of his best by any other measure. The selections of
16 Greatest Hits
span 15 years, from
"Pure Love"
(1974) to
"A Woman in Love"
(1989), and the compilation leans heavily on
Milsap
's early-'80s hitmaking prime, when his music fit right in with the
urban cowboy
trend then prevailing. Thankfully, there's a good selection of mid-'70s hits thrown in as well, like the
Kristofferson
-penned
"Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends,"
so that
's
countrypolitan
phase is represented, thereby counterbalancing the heft of the early-'80s material here. It's debatable whether or not
would have been a better listen if it had been sequenced chronologically, if only to showcase the arc of
's career. There's a bounty of
best-ofs on the market, with double-discs like
The Essential Ronnie Milsap
(2006) and
40 #1 Hits
(2000) standing out as the most comprehensive. However, if the prospect of 40 songs on one collection is too daunting, or just plain too much, a single-disc collection like
or the 22-track
Ultimate Ronnie Milsap
(2004) is ideal. Either way,
sang a ridiculous number of hits in his day, so it's hard to go wrong with any collection that's reasonably compiled. ~ Jason Birchmeier